Gov. Andrew Cuomo avoided reporters Friday amid growing controversy over The Post’s disclosure that a top aide admitted that his administration had obscured nursing home death records over an ongoing federal probe.
Despite traveling to Washington, DC for a high-profile meeting at the White House, Cuomo stayed put afterward and did not appear in public – although Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson addressed outside journalists
Both men were among a bipartisan group of governors and mayors who sat down with President Biden in the Oval Office to discuss Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 emergency plan.
In a statement released later in the afternoon, Cuomo and Hutchinson – who are the chairman and vice-chairman of the National Governors Association, respectively – said that “the president and his team have made it clear that they recognize and appreciate how critically these targeted relief is for our ability to recover from this pandemic. “
Biden’s “American Rescue Plan” is setting aside more than $ 50 billion for the Empire State on little money, The Post reported exclusively earlier Friday.
During the daily White House press conference on Friday, press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed a reporter’s question as to whether Biden still had confidence in Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic and whether the topic of the nursing home death toll came up during their meeting.
Well, the president today brought Gov. Cuomo and a bipartisan group of governors and mayors to the White House to get their perspective from the front line, to not give anyone a stamp of approval or to seek their stamp of approval – and to discuss the urgency of passing the US bailout, ‘she said.
Cuomo is facing calls for federal and state investigations into comments made by Governor Secretary Melissa DeRosa during a video conference with Democratic state lawmakers on Wednesday night – the audio of which was obtained exclusively by The Post.
DeRosa said Cuomo’s government refused to reveal the actual number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19 last year out of concern that the devastating numbers would be “used against us” by the Justice Department.